'Sumit Sambhaal Lega' has universal appeal: producers

The makers of "Sumit Sambhaal Lega", the official Indian adaptation of popular American sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond", are confident that the universality of the story will appeal everyone.
"There is a lot of pressure but it is positive. It has worked everywhere and Russian version is still doing very well," producer Deeya Singh told PTI.
"The appeal of the show and idea of the family is universal. No other series could be adapted so perfectly in the Indian scenario," she added.
The show has three directors on board. The producers feel this technique has given them the best results and creative space to directors.

"To avoid boredom, to maintain quality, to assure involvement of the director on the editing table and in the rehearsals we decided to bring three directors- Shashant Shah, Deven Bhojani and Parmeet Sethi on board. We are working the way people in America do, the show will air on August 31 and we already have a bank of around 80 episodes," Singh said.
"Dasvidaniya" helmer Shanshant Shah, who had set up the series, believes the idea of having three directors has worked well for the show.

"I was approached by Deeya for the show in November. I had set up first 30 odd episodes and that's when I was told there will be couple of other directors joining in and then they got Deven and Parmeet by March. We share the details and what can be done or can be carried forward," Shah said.

The show follows the story of a Punjabi family living in Delhi; and stars seasoned actor Namit Das as the protagonist Sumit Walia, Manasi Parekh Gohil as his wife Maya, Bharati Achrekar as mother Dolly Walia, Vikram Kochar as Rajneesh Walia, Sumit's brother and actor-filmmaker Satish Kaushik as the head of the family, Jasbir Walia.
Kaushik, who is all set to make a comeback on television after 16 years, said the concept and the role he was offered tempted him to invest nine months in the project.
"I am an actor and if anything good is happening anywhere I just go there. An actor's job is to act be it theatre, TV, films or commercial ads.

Namit Das, who is playing a lead role in a sitcom, is very excited about the show but confessed he was nervous to take up such a popular character initially.
"I consider myself very lucky to work in such professionally sound environment and play an iconic character, but with this I would like to confess that for first three months I was very nervous as I had too work hard to understand my character and maintain the comic tune without going over the board," he said.
The show will air from Monday to Saturday at 10 pm on Star Plus.